Roger Clemens lawyer attacks key piece of evidence
by Associated Press, bostonherald.comMay 19th 2012
WASHINGTON — Attacking key prosecution evidence, Roger Clemens' lawyer went through the items in a Miller Lite beer can one at a time and tried to cast doubt on the syringes and medical waste allegedly used to inject the famous pitcher with performance-enhancing drugs.
Attorney Rusty Hardin expressed shock when Clemens's chief accuser Brian McNamee acknowledged that some of the items in the can had been used to inject other players. McNamee, Clemens' longtime strength coach, had testified he collected the materials after injecting Clemens with steroids.
"Haven't you testified that everything in the beer can was for Roger?" Hardin asked. "Isn't this a classic example of you making up this stuff on the fly?"
Although Hardin expressed shock that some items in the beer can were not used on Clemens, McNamee told congressional investigators the same thing in 2008, prior to the U.S. House committee hearing in which he and Clemens testified.
The 11-time All-Star pitcher is charged with perjury for telling Congress that he never used steroids or human growth hormone.
Hardin demanded to know how materials from other players "flew" into the beer can. When prosecutors objected, the lawyer said, "Well, how did they get in there?"
"I put them in the can that night" after injecting Clemens, McNamee said.
When Hardin asked if McNamee ever told government investigators that he put the other players' material in the beer can that night, McNamee said not specifically "that night. It's never been asked that way before."
McNamee is the only witness who will claim firsthand knowledge of Clemens using performance-enhancing drugs, and he never wavered from that central accusation during Hardin's cross-examination.
McNamee endured a fifth day Friday of questioning. He's now spent some 24 hours in the swivel chair between jury and judge.
McNamee will return to the stand Monday in a trial moving so slowly that U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton — for the first time in more than 30 years as a judge — imposed time limits to speed things up: Only 90 minutes per side for witnesses after McNamee and closing arguments limited to two hours apiece.
"I just can't let this case meander on forever," the judge said.
The trial was supposed to last four to six weeks, but it's just wrapping up its fifth week — and the government said Friday it still has nine witnesses to call, down from the 14 it estimated the previous day. If the trial isn't done by June 8, Walton said he may have to call a recess for about a month because of various scheduling conflicts.
"And then we'll have some real unhappy jurors," Walton said.
Clemens' attorney Hardin spent three-plus days of cross-examination portraying McNamee as a chronic liar who frequently changes his story. Toward the end, Hardin raised numerous unsavory personal details: McNamee tampered with a dead body when he was a New York City policeman, he lied to investigators looking into a Florida incident in 2001, he had two driving-under-the-influence arrests in 2002, he got caught up in an Internet fraud investigation after ordering diet pills over the Web in 2004.
"Would you agree that you had a severe drinking problem?" was among the many accusatory questions from Hardin. McNamee answered "No, sir" to that one.
Shared from Pocket
Victor Cuvo, Attorney at Law
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